Anisoptera scaphula (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Anisoptera scaphula (Roxb.) Kurz

Protologue: Fl. Burma 1: 547 (1877).

Synonyms

• Anisoptera glabra Kurz (1873),
• Vatica scaphula (Roxb.) Dyer (1874),
• Hopeoides scaphula (Roxb.) Cretz. (1941).

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: mersawa gajah, sanai, terbak (Peninsular)
• Burma: kaunghmu (general), taungsagaing (Ataran), kaunghmu-yweth-the (Toungoo)
• Thailand: krabak khao, champa bai lek, cha muang (peninsular).

Distribution

Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.

Uses

The timber is used as mersawa.

Observations

• A large or very large tree, bole up to 285 cm in diameter and prominently buttressed.
• Leaves 8-16 cm × 3.5-8 cm, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, greyish-green lepidote beneath, with 13-18 pairs of secondary veins prominent on both surfaces.
• Flower bud broadly ovoid, stamens 15, stylopodium absent, style columnar, glabrous.

A. scaphula grows in semi-evergreen and evergreen dipterocarp forest on undulating land and valleys. The density of the wood is 510-815 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

Selected sources

258, 442, 495, 628, 644, 677, 748.

Main genus page

• Anisoptera

Authors

• M.H.A. Hoffman (selection of species)